If you sell advertising and get paid by using PayPal, you can be hit with a chargeback by the client for no reason at all, and PayPal will side with the client, regardless of whether there are any grounds to the client’s dispute or not.

Here’s the story:

I have a client, who has been buying online advertising from my website for a couple of years. The ad was paid for with a subscription on a credit card through PayPal. The card was billed to an employee of the company, who ended up leaving the company. He did not bother to cancel his subscription for his ad, so his credit card continued to be charged once each month.

He did not want to pay for the advertising after he left the company, so he disputed the charge, rather than seeking reimbursement from his former employer. Here’s what I got from PayPal

> We recently notified you of a chargeback stating that the merchandise
> received had one of the following problems:
> It was damaged or defective
> It was not as described, or
> Services were not rendered

I provided PayPal with proof that the ad was still running and the guy’s employer was happy with it. It didn’t matter. I appealed and that didn’t help. Here’s what PayPal sent me:

> This transaction was reversed for the following reasons(s):
>
> - This chargeback type is not covered under PayPal’s chargeback policies.
>

Is there anything that I can do to fight this? Has anyone had a similar experience?